Employment for people between the ages of 15 and 24 rose by 32,600, while it was little changed for other demographic groups, according to seasonally-adjusted figures released by Statistics Canada on Friday

The 22-year-old spent six hours a day submitting applications online, following up via email and by phone or making cold calls.

“It was tough, it was pretty nerve-wracking,” Mr. Bates said. “But I had known from friends before that have been through the process… [They] prepared me for what I was in for.”

Last month, finally, he broke through, nabbing a job as a search-engine-optimization specialist at Spark, an Internet marketing agency in Toronto.

He wasn’t alone. In fact, employment in March grew by 43,000, compared to January, largely driven by youth like Mr. Bates.

Employment for people between the ages of 15 and 24 rose by 32,600, while it was little changed for other demographic groups, according to seasonally-adjusted figures released by Statistics Canada on Friday.

It’s a glimmer of hope for a cohort which has struggled to enter the workforce, in part as Baby Boomers stay in their jobs longer and Canadian economic growth slows.

Plus, these gains could in part be attributed to the declining quality of jobs coming onto the market often filled by youth, he added.

“I would not declare victory, and say that the youth employment problem has been resolved. Not at all,” Mr. Tal said. “Definitely an encouraging trend, an encouraging number, but not the beginning of a trend.”

Most of those youth jobs, at 19,000, were part-time, compared to 13,600 full-time positions.

It’s also not the first bump in youth jobs. In May 2013, employment in Canada among people between the ages of 15 and 24 rose by 53,000, said Andrew Fields, Statistics Canada analyst. Big surges in the past have been followed by declines the following month, said Mr. Tal.

The biggest jumps in youth employment in March were seen in British Columbia (2.7%), Quebec (2%), followed by Ontario (1.74%), and to a lesser extent New Brunswick (1%).

I would not declare victory, and say that the youth employment problem has been resolved. Not at all

March was the fourth consecutive month of youth-employment gains in B.C., said StatsCan.

The jobs growth in Ontario and Quebec are, in part, a ripple effect from the recovery in the U.S., though the Canadian economy is less able to capitalize on the prosperity of our southern neighbour due to reduced capacity in our manufacturing base, said Mr. Tal. B.C., on the other hand, likely benefited from an uptick in construction industry activity and economic brightness in China.

But overall, the quality of jobs being added are eroding. CIBC’s employment index — which looks at part-time vs. full-time employment, paid-employment vs. self-employment, and the relative level of compensation associated — dropped from a rolling average of 99.21 in February to 98.21 in March.

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In the early stages of the recovery, it is higher-quality jobs that return to the market and are likely filled by older, established workers who had lost them, he said. The second wave is likely what is appearing now, where lower quality jobs are being filled by young people.

“To me, this suggests that the labour market is reaching a more mature cycle, where some young people are able to enter, but enter at a reduced rate in terms of quality,” Mr. Tal said.

These part-time jobs or entry-level jobs which should be stepping-stones to a higher-paying career roles are becoming dead ends for many young people, said Nancy Schaefer, president of Youth Employment Services in Toronto.

“We’re not seeing much reason to celebrate,” she said. “Young people are still struggling to break into the labour market. And this just points out, a lot of it is part-time work, which you can’t support yourself on in Toronto. And a lot of it is contract work, and a lot of it is just simply precarious employment.”

And the competition for the jobs that are available can be cutthroat.

After Kalie Lovatt finished up her bachelor’s degree from the University of Waterloo, majoring in psychology, last summer she spent two months looking for a full-time position.

The now 23-year-old needed a job located along the transit routes in Waterloo, Ont., where she lives, but was open to a myriad of positions from receptionist to retail and the food industry.

“There’s not too much out there for a psychology major,” she said. “You have to have a graduate degree to get anything.”

In July, she found a part-time job as a nanny, and continued looking for a full-time job on the side. In August, after applying to some 40 positions, she was hired as a manager at a women’s clothing boutique in Waterloo.

And in the fall, Ms. Lovatt plans to taking an online program studying autism and behaviour sciences.

“I’ve always been interested in it,” she says. “I know there’s nothing I can really do with my undergrad … I thought that after my undergrad I would be set. Now, everyone has an undergrad.”

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